Acceleration means adding crews, shifts, overtime or resources to finish faster. It comes in two forms.
Directed acceleration. The owner orders the contractor to finish earlier than the contract requires, or to make up owner-caused delay. This is a change, and the contractor should be paid the added cost through a change order.
Constructive acceleration. The contractor is entitled to a time extension (an excusable delay), requests it properly, and the owner refuses or ignores it while still demanding the original completion date under threat of liquidated damages. The contractor accelerates to avoid LDs. Courts in many jurisdictions treat that as a compensable change, but the contractor generally has to prove entitlement to the extension, a timely request, the denial, the order (express or implied) to keep the original date, and the actual extra cost.
Why it matters
Acceleration is expensive. Overtime carries premium pay and fatigue lowers productivity, often meaning more cost per unit of work. Without a paper trail, acceleration costs end up as unrecoverable margin fade.
Worked example
Illustrative: to recover 15 working days, a contractor runs a second shift for 20 days at $9,000 per day in added labor, supervision and equipment, so $180,000. If those days were owner-caused delay and the extension was denied, that $180,000 is the basis of a constructive acceleration claim.
Common mistakes
- Accelerating without a written notice that you consider it directed or constructive.
- Not tracking acceleration costs to their own cost code.
- Assuming a verbal “just get it done” will be honored later.
How os.construction handles it
We’re building change events and job cost on one record, so acceleration costs are captured as they happen against the event that caused them. It’s in development.